


Try again

by orphan_account



Category: Skulduggery Pleasant - Derek Landy
Genre: Aftermath of Torture, Based on a Tumblr Post, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Heavy Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Nightmares, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Self-Destruction, Survivor Guilt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-02
Updated: 2018-04-02
Packaged: 2019-04-16 23:36:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 782
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14175822
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: "The waves drown and swallow you, leaving your breathless and scared. Oh, but the great Skulduggery Pleasant was never scared. That's what he told himself when everything got too much. God everything was too much"Based on onelassieandherfandoms ‘s post on tumblrthis is set in dark days btw





	Try again

What people underestimated - Skulduggery thought- was how hard it was to repress things. Memories, emotions, pain. It wasn’t easy. Events happen and dredges everything back up. The misery, the pain, the hurt. It all comes back to you full force and there’s not much you can do to stop it. The waves drown and swallow you, leaving your breathless and scared.

Oh, but the great Skulduggery Pleasant was never scared.

That's what he told himself when everything got too much. God everything was too much and there is so escaping from it. No way to numb himself. 

No, he was okay. He was absolutely fine thank you very much. 

Rubbing a hand over his face he settled back into the old, used armchair and crossed his legs again. Focusing on meditation. Blocking everything else out until it was just him and the magic that kept his bones together… and Valkyrie who seemed to have dozed off on the sofa, drooling on one of the cushions fast asleep. 

Drawing in a breath that he didn’t need (force of habit) he made himself sit still and to focus. He didn’t need to breath and he didn’t feel the temperature of the room. Valkyrie snored quietly which worked as an anchor to tether him to the world. 

No this wasn’t going to work, he was restless and anxious. There were still paper all over the floor from researching the latest case. A sorcerer was kidnapped and it was their job to find him and so that the information he had didn’t get into the wrong hands. He paced the room like he could wear a hole from Ireland to the Australia purely by pacing and at this rate he didn’t rule out the possibility of it happening. 

“Skuldugg’ry” Valkyrie yawned and re-positioned herself so that her cushion was no longer slipping off of the sofa. “Go back to meditating.” Doing as he told, he sat heavily on the sofa and tried again. 

Except the chair wasn’t a chair. It was yellow sand. Like everything had been obliterated and only the smallest grains of dust had survived. The hot sun beat down on his skull without his hat, starting to bleach the bones. 

Agony erupts from his chest and suddenly he’s pleading. Pleading for the pain to stop, pleading for his wife and child’s life. Pleading for death. 

Leaping from the armchair and stamping on the papers that littered the floor he curled up his fists and focused on what was around him. He was at home. Valkyrie was dozing on the sofa. It was still dark out. 

Letting all the emotions back in was a mistake, he decided. Time to shove them back down again where they belong.

But the anger still stays.

Why didn’t he stay dead? Why did his family have to die? Why the fuck can’t he keep it together?

“Skulduggery, stop!” Valkyrie said, bringing him out of his reverie. His hands were still bundled up in a fist vibrating at his sides like he had one hundred volts running through his bones. He realised that he was heaving despite not needing oxygen. “It’s just a bad dream, okay.” Valkyrie spoke soothingly. “You’re allowed to have bad dreams, remember. That’s what you told me.” 

“Now come and sit down,” Valkyrie said. She wanted to reach out to him. To touch his hands but she wasn’t certain if that would make things worse. 

Wordlessly he sat down in the arm chair besides the sofa that Valkyrie was sitting on. She sat up slowly and waited a few minutes before speaking. When she did finally speak she asked Skulduggery to uncurl the hand that was closest to her. Slowly he agreed and she carefully swirled her fingertips on the palm of him hands. 

“Can you feel that?” Valkyrie asked, unsure if what she was doing was actually helping.” 

“I can feel the air moving which is as close as I can get to what you’re trying to do.” She smiled at that and continued her movements. 

“Do you want to talk about anything?” Valkyrie asked. Tilting his head, Skulduggery considered this for a moment and then shook his head. “No, It was just a bad dream, like you said.”  
“Are you sure? Because it’s okay to accept help” She said as she changed the direction of her hand. Going anti-clockwise this time she now included Skulduggery’s fingers. “I could text Ghastly?” She offered but he shook his head again. 

“Go back to sleep. I’ll be fine.” 

“Okay,” Valkyrie said knowing that she won’t get anymore information out of him. “I’ll be here if you decide you do want to talk.”

“I know, thank you.”


End file.
